Chartered accountants: how do you advertise as part of your profession?

Advertising by chartered accountants has long been subject to restrictions, until the recent opening up of the right to advertise and canvass. The rules governing advertising by chartered accountants have been relaxed, although promotional activities are still subject to certain conditions.

How can you promote your accountancy firm and ensure its commercial development through advertising? What practices are permitted and what limits apply?

Here's everything you need to know about your right to advertise as a chartered accountant, and a guide to the means of communication available to you to promote your business!

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Accountants: what advertising can you do?

Practices authorised by the Hamon Act

Since the Hamon Act of 22 August 2014, communication and canvassing activities to promote a chartered accountancy firm have been authorised, but remain regulated.

Professionals may carry out various advertising activities, such as :

• promoting their firm in a magazine insert,
• promoting their services and offers on a website,
• displaying the address of the accountancy firm on a billboard,

provided that they comply with the general principles established by the Ordre des Experts-Comptables.

The forms of communication used must be compatible with the ethical rules of the profession as set out in article 152 of the Code of Ethics.

The promotional activities carried out by the persons referred to in Article 141 are intended to provide the public they are targeting with useful information. These persons may only offer services to third parties who have not requested them under conditions compatible with the ethical and professional rules governing the practice of their profession.

Article 152, modifié par Décret n° 2014-912 du 18 août 2014.

In short, they must meet the following criteria:

• ✅ they must convey useful information;
• ✅ their content must be accurate and not mislead the public;
• ✅ their expression must be decent and restrained;
• ✅ they must comply with the rules of professional secrecy;
• ✅ they must show loyalty towards clients and other members of the profession.

☝️Si a communication action is deemed unfair or indecent, sanctions may be applied.

For your practice, you must therefore ensure that you find the right balance and the necessary moderation in your advertising, in order to serve your interests and meet your communication needs, without deviating from the established rules.

Limits to promotional activities

The Code of Ethics for Chartered Accountants specifies that communication campaigns must not damage:

• image
• independence
• the dignity
• or the honour of the profession.

Furthermore, advertising must be free of any comparative elements and contain no inaccuracies.

Finally, advertising content must not promote a "specialisation", which is not recognised by the profession as such and which could mislead the customer.

What advertising levers can you use to develop your practice?

With this in mind, it is in your best interests to establish a communications strategy to ensure the commercial development of your accountancy firm. This is an important part of your firm's business, helping it to raise its profile and reach new clients. Let's look at the different options available to you.

Collective advertising by the Ordre des Experts-Comptables

Even before you embark on a communications plan to promote your individual business, you are already benefiting from the OEC's communications initiatives. The OEC's aim is to pool and finance advertising campaigns so that all accountancy professionals can benefit.

Thanks to advertising campaigns highlighting the skills and qualifications of the chartered accountant, clients have a better understanding of the role of the chartered accountant, whether for :

• businesses
• public authorities
• entrepreneurs
• associations.

Campaigns such as "L'expert-comptable: un conseil qui compte" (The accountant: advice that counts) promote the skills of the accountant and focus particularly on the accountant's advisory role , especially in certain areas: employment, IT, asset management, etc.

Communication tools for chartered accountants

There are many options to choose from, ranging from traditional to digital communication tools:

• publishing a paper magazine
• creating a promotional video to be shown in your practice,
• decorating your practice's shop window, provided you keep a certain amount of discretion, as a commercial front is not permitted,
• creating a website,
• distributing a newsletter,
• using social media, creating a corporate page on Facebook or LinkedIn, or a professional account on Twitter, which gives you both a channel for direct exchanges and a showcase for promoting your activities.

These different channels allow you not only to communicate about your offer, but also to disseminate content on subjects that concern your audience:

• legislative news
• topics related to your expertise,
• or a profession you support, etc.

Inbound marketing for accountants

You can use inbound marketing techniques to make your accountancy business shine, so that prospects come to you, as opposed to canvassing.

There are various ways of doing this:

• organising or taking part in conferences or seminars in your areas of expertise,
• promoting these events on social networks or on your website,
• a blog or YouTube channel, with articles or videos, tutorials, etc. to create valuable content likely to be of interest to your targets,
• setting up a review system to encourage recommendations from your customers, etc.

A polished brand image for your practice

These communication and marketing levers enable you to :

• promote your expertise,
• educate and raise awareness of the different facets of your profession,
• create a feeling of closeness with your prospects.

By nurturing your brand image in this way, you can reassure your customers and prospects about the quality of your services, and increase your chances of building customer loyalty.

To achieve this, one of the prerequisites is to equip yourself with high-performance tools so that you can devote most of your time to the essential aspects of your profession:

• nurturing customer relations,
• guaranteeing a quality service that meets customers' expectations as closely as possible,
• winning new customers.

⚒️ For example, by using a tool such as QuickBooks Experts-Comptables, you can speed up and automate time-consuming tasks, and be more efficient in managing accounting tasks. As a result, you can concentrate on high added-value activities, such as supporting your customers: you'll improve your customer relations and gain a competitive edge when it comes to developing your customer base.

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Advertising to raise your profile

The opening up of the right to advertise has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for accountancy firms wishing to build their development strategy and attract new clients.

Despite a relatively strict framework, there are a variety of ways in which you can advertise. Don't hesitate to try them out and make them your own, in order to improve the trust that clients place in you and ultimately your reputation.

And what are the levers you choose to communicate your offer and your quality as an expert?